Open .dxf in SUPro via Inkscape

Hello all. I have been asked to amend a set of plans that the original author was unable to finish. Unfortunately, all I have are vector PDFs of that set, with no access to other formats. According to The Oracle, and several happy youtube tutors, all I have to do is get Inkscape, import a PDF, convert it to .dxf, and then import into SU. I tried this, steps 1 through 3 go just fine, but what shows up in SU is… I dunno…


  • screenshot 1 is a page in Inkscape
  • screenshot 2 is the same page in SU

Am I missing something?

your pal,

Big Beaver

Hello, try exporting from inkscape to dxf r14 release instead of r12 and see if it works any better ?

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Hi there! Thanks for the tip. Using your suggestion made the import make more sense. It’s clear enough that I can make the changes I need to to the image. None of the texts comes through, so I’ll have to re-label everything, but that’s no biggie.
Cheers!

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See this recent thread for texts :

Cheers! I’ll give it a go!

Another thing to check is the import unit used. It often makes sense to use a larger unit than the one actually used in the DWG/DXF, especially if the file to be imported is small, like a plan reduced to a small scale.

I think I changed it to feet, as that seemed to make sense. How do you determine the units used in the original drawing once it’s in Inkscape?

That will depend on the scale that was used for the pdf - if it has one - you can also use the tape tool to resize the model by measuring a known distance and typing in its real dimension

Yeah, I scaled it in SU to 1/4"=1’ (1:48, my favourite), but the OG was 1:50 - little bit of head scratching for a second there! It’s all working out quite nicely now, almost too fast, time to up my rate!